Wisdom, Quotes & Theory
Joan Miro
You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again, you can look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.
Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
Alain De Botton - Status Anxiety
Rousseau’s argument hung on a radical thesis. Being truly wealthy, he suggested, does not require having many things; rather, it requires having what one longs for. Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
There are two ways to make a man richer, reasoned Rousseau: give him more money or curb his desires. Modern societies have done the former spectacularly well, but by continuously whetting appetites, they have at the same time managed to negate a share of their success. For the individual, trying to make more money may not be the most effective way to feel wealthy. We might do better, instead, to distance ourselves, both practically and emotionally, from those whom we consider to be our equals and yet who have grown richer than us. Rather than struggling to become bigger fish, we might concentrate our energies on finding smaller ponds or smaller species to swim with, so our own size will trouble us less. Insofar as advanced societies supply their members with historically elevated incomes, they appear to make us wealthier. But in truth, their net effect may be to impoverish us, because by fostering unlimited expectations, they keep open permanent gaps between what we want and what we can afford, between who we might be and who we really are.
Such disparities may leave us feeling more deprived even than primitive savages, who, insisted Rousseau (his argument here reaching the limits of plausibility), felt themselves to be lacking for nothing in the world so long as they had a roof over their heads, a few apples and nuts to eat and the leisure to spend their evenings playing on “some crude musical instrument” or “using sharp-edged stones to make a fishing canoe.”
Tim Ferriss
Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually’, just do it and correct the course along the way.
David Foster Wallace
But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
What do you choose?
The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care.
- Hugh Mcleod
10 Work Principles By Frank Chimero
10 Principles That Might Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse
1. Be honest.
Be honest to your audience. An open path of communication is built upon trust. This idea is relevant to every other form of communication, and I think it applies to visual communication. Honesty isn’t just about audience. Be honest to yourself as well. Do the things you’re passionate about. Avoid the things that you hate, if you can.
2. Consistent voice is more important than consistent style.
Voice is about what you say. It’s content. Style is about what you’re wearing. It’s aesthetics. The prior informs the latter, not the other way around. Clothes don’t make the man. They don’t make your work either.
3. Does it have heart?
If it does, make it. If it doesn’t, why spend the time on something that doesn’t have spirit?
4. Have modest expectations.
Spend a lot of time choosing that one thing that a piece of design or an illustration should try to do. Then, work your ass off trying to figure out the absolute best way to do that one thing.
5. Don’t be scared of your tools.
Use them, don’t fear them. For instance, while sketching, I recommend using cheap paper. If the paper’s cheap, you won’t feel bad documenting your bad ideas. Getting the first, awful ideas out of the way is crucial: very rarely does any one hit it out of the park on the first try. If I had a sketchbook filled with nice, expensive paper, I’d feel obligated to make the first idea I sketched brilliant. That pressure would paralyze me. Tools should be enablers, not disablers. If something is more intrusive or intimidating than it is useful, get rid of it. It’s not a tool, it’s a toy. Or worse, a creative boogie man that you’re inviting through your front door.
6. Embrace the subconscious.
In the studio, I have a sofa for naps with a couple pillows. The pillow is kind of comfortable, but mostly not. Just soft enough to relax you. But, just stiff enough to keep you from falling fully asleep. Right before you fall fully asleep, your brain is making all sorts of connections between all of the unrelated thoughts in your brain. There’s no filter from your conscious mind saying “This makes sense. This other idea doesn’t.” Without that filter, you can consider more possibilities. So, grab something to write with, fill your head to the brim with research and what you already know. Then, take an almost-nap and get ready to document the ideas that find you.
7. Edit.
Delete unimportant things. Even if you love them. If it isn’t spectacular, it gets cut. Kill your darlings. Be a cold-blooded killer. Ruthless. Delete. Refine. Improve.
8. Being too comfortable is dangerous.
Most creatures die in their sleep. Keep moving, or get eaten. The only things you should be absolutely comfortable with in your creative process are your tools.
9. There is nothing keeping you from doing the sort of work that you wish.
What do you want? It’s a hard, yet crucial question. We all do creative work to get happy. It’s why we let it beat us up, and it’s why we keep crawling back to it. Figure out precisely what you want, and realize that if no one will pay you to make it, you can still make it for yourself. And you still win, because you’re happy.
10. Execute.
An idea on the page is worth 100x more than an idea in the mind. You can only judge and be judged by work that’s executed. Eventually, we all realize that most of the ideas that look great in our mind look dumb once they’re real. But, at least you now know.
Fuller Designing
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think of how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
- Buckminster Fuller
Principles Behind Japanese Design
FUKINSEI (imbalanced)
Asymmetry, odd numbers, irregularity, unevenness, imbalance is used as a denial of perfection as perfection and symmetry does not occur in nature.
KANSO (simple)
Elimination of ornate and things of simplicity by nature expresses their truthfulness. Neat, frank and uncomplicated.
KOKOU (austere)
Basic, weathered bare essentials that are aged and un-sensuous. Evokes sternness, forbiddance, maturity and weight.
SHIZEN (natural)
Raw, natural and unforced creativity without pretense. True naturalness is to negate the naive and accidental.
YUGEN (subtle profound)
Suggest and not reveal layers of meaning hidden within. Invisible to the casual eye and avoiding the obvious.
DATSUZOKU (unworldly)
Transcendence of conventional and traditional. Free from the bondage of laws and restrictions. True creativity.
SEIJAKU (calm)
Silence and tranquility, blissful solitude. Absence of disturbance and noise from one’s mind, body and surroundings.
Done Manifesto
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they have given up. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody is telling you anymore, thats' a bad place to be. Your critics are the one telling you they still love you and care.
- Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.
- Are you tigger or are you eeyore?
- Never lose child-like wonder
- Help others
- Don't bail, the best of the gold is at the bottom of the barrel
- Don't complain, just work harder
- Show gratitude
- Learn through head-fakes, by learning without knowing you're learning.
Advertising
Advertising is the price companies pay for being un-original.
Where Do I Stand?
As a company, you have to be the most of something - the most exclusive, the most affordable, the most responsive, the most friendly. Companies used to want to be in the middle of the road - that’s where all the customers were. But now, in an age of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the middle of the road is the road to ruin. What do they say in Texas? ‘The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos.
Simplicity
Simplicity is about living life with more enjoyment and less pain. - John Maeda
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere. - Bruce Mau
We're rarely more beautiful than when we're our most ugly. That's when we know what we're really made of. - Chris Abani
Change your behaviour and it will change your mind. If you want to become more compassionate, volunteer at a hospital and your mind will become more compassionate. - AJ Jacobs
Make Ideas Happen
You're ready already. Nobody knows what they hell they are doing. There is no instruction manual for exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. It hasn't been written yet. And only you can write it. Now's the time to do it. Stop waiting to live your dream.
Listen to your gut and make up your own mind. Do your research, lots of it, but just because you can't find any believers or proven success stories doesn't mean you're not the one to make it successful.
Be less afraid of failure. There's no doubt that fear is a good motivator, but failing is inevitable. And thank God. It's how you learn and grow. If one thing doesn't work, try something else. You can always say you tried which is more than most people.
Don't put all your happiness into one basket. It's a lot easier to deal with the constant breakdowns and breakthroughs if you have more than one source of happiness.
Using Constraints
I've had several business ideas in the past, none of which ever made it out of thoughtspace. In starting 30 sleeps, I took a lesson from how you guys used constraints to drive the development of Basecamp. My primary constraint was a deadline: June 1, 2007. I made a commitment to myself that, no matter what, 30zzz was going live on that date. This gave me only a few weeks to get something running.
Tightening the noose forced me to start building something right away, even though I had only a vague idea of what I wanted the site to be. My first coding session involved literally opening up TextMate and just plowing. The UI went from nothing, to horribly bad, to ugly, to tolerable, to usable, to running in production. Had I waited until I was "ready" to start this project, I'd still be twiddling my thumbs.
10 Things I Believe So Far
1. Form and function
The two can live in harmony, the trick is to realise that pure function can be in beautiful form - like a txt msg.
2. Interactions speak louder than words
You can talk all you want about something. But, just like show and tell, it's only when you pass it around for others to see that it becomes more than a production.
3. Be afraid
"Fear is the beginning of all wisdom". Always be afraid that you don't know what you're doing - have the confidence that you do. And pursue a healthy balance.
4. You can't polish a sneaker
Don't try to sell a hollow idea as something more. Start with something solid, something that'll look good polished.
5. Beautiful simplicity
Designing and writing simple is difficult. Understanding this challenge is what makes concise so beautiful.
6. If everything is important, nothing is
A clear heirarchy and focus of information is a core principle in design. This is true in all areas of communication.
7. Return on involvement
Some believe meetings are a waste of time - a lot of times they are. Although, including the people who will be involved is well worth the investment.
8. The best idea is boss
Ideas should be judged soley on their own merit. An amazing idea can come from anyone. Empower this by letting go of the title - it's the best way to make the "boss" happy.
9. Design in 3s
This simple approach works well in aesthetics and communication. It hardly ever fails.
10. Stay fresh
Read and learn. Experiment and explore. Never quit persuing your passion and trade.
Good Design Is
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Back to purity, back to simplicity.
Getting Things Done
Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.
Creative Ideas
He does, in fact, prioritize. "I try not to have all these ideas that don't amount to anything," he says. That's what differentiates a successful innovator from someone with a lot of unrealized what-ifs: the ability to produce a single, well-defined opportunity from a lot of cool, snazzy ideas. To do so requires discipline, pragmatism and goal-setting. As successful as he's been, Bertone knows that a good innovator always stays on his toes. Brand innovation, he says, works "like a relationship. How do you not become boring to your partner?" For all of Bertone's casual confidence, his answer to the question is surprising. "You have to always have that insecurity," he says. "You can't get too confident with your ideas."
Problem Solving
Why are we doing this?
What problem are we solving?
Is this actually useful?
Are we adding value?
Will this change behaviour?
Is there an easier way?
What's the opportunity cost?
Is it really worth it?
Persist
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
- John Calvin Coolidge
Life Is...
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air.
You name them: work, family, health, friends, and spirit, and you´re keeping all of them in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass.
If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same.
You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
How?
- Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
- Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
- Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
- Don't let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.
- Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
- Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us together.
- Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn to be brave.
- Don't shut love out of your life by saying it´s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
- Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.
- Don't forget that a person´s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
- Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
- Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
- Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, and Today is a gift; that's why we call it - the Present...
Art boundaries
I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
- Federico Fellini
Stifled Creativity
Creativity tends to be flattened when we are harried, when we need to boil it down fast, get it done, get it good enough, and then move on to the next crisis, to the next item on the agenda, to the next project that must be completed in typical under-budgeted, under- resourced, under-timelined fashion.
This puts powerful pressures on us to deliver without going out on a limb, without tapping the true wellsprings of our creativity, doing just enough to get by. In fairness, speed ultimately disconnects us from the passions that fuel our creativity. One might call it “succeeding by not screwing up too badly.”
Finally, and increasingly frequently, it results in that unenviable state known as perpetual burnout and Survival of the Fastest turns into the need for Revival of the Fastest.
Achieving A+
In considering how to achieve an A+, we must revisit the idea that technology siphons creativity out of the innovation process by depriving us of sleep and demanding ever more speed, which ultimately leads to heightened stress, anxiety, and eventually burnout.
Stefan Sagmeisters Things I Like About My Job
- Thinking about ideas and content freely - with the deadline far away (no anxiety)
- Working without interruption on a single project (immersion)
- Using a wide variety of tools and techniques (don't get bored)
- Travelling to new places (get out of the studio)
- Working on projects that matter to me (important projects to me)
- Having things come back from the printer done well (enjoy end results)
Stefan Sagmeisters Things I Have Learnt
- Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
- Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
- Being not truthful works against me.
- Helping other people helps me.
- Organising a charity group is suprisingly easy.
- Everything I do always comes back to me.
- Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
- Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
- Money does not make me happy.
- Travelling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
- Assuming is stifling.
- Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
- Trying to look good limits my life.
- Worrying solves nothing.
- Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
- Having guts always works out for me.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/04/luddite_0426
So we're doomed. We will continue inventing exquisite new ways of killing each other, and justifying the need to do so, until we succeed in destroying everything. Which, in the name of somebody's god or somebody's country or somebody's way of life, we will. You have a nice day, now.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-become-a-creative-genius.html
"Schools have crushed creativity. We were told to color within the lines. We were taught to follow instructions. The goal ins chool is to get the 'right' answer. Unfortunately, if you're afraid to be wrong, you'll never be creative or original."
http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html
When you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.
Style is not to be trusted.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvelous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty.
On Aging
Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’
http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es5_pop.html
Perhaps the most obvious loss is what we call our sense of reality. Television combines news about the war, Paris Hilton’s career, global warming and Geico commercials into events of equal importance. The result is an enormous population that believes nothing matters.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000121.html
5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns. In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be where you are.” It works.
6. Don’t forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after forgetting his goal. Students and young designers often approach a problem with insight and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip away in confusion, fear and wasted effort. They forget their goals, and make up new ones as they go along. Original thought is a kind of gift from the gods. Artists know this. “Hold the moment,” they say. “Honor it.” Get your idea down on a slip of paper and tape it up in front of you.
8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.
9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it, distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.
http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/resources/type_advice.htm
Think more, design less.
Many desperate acts of design (drop shadows, gradients and the gratuitous use of transparency) are committed in the void left by a strong concept.
The cornerstone of this place is a work ethic. A hungry, passionate, intense work ethic. You look at Steven Spielberg, hardest working man in
Wieden + Kennedy
Hollywood. Kobe Bryant, hardest working man in the NBA. Anyone who has gotten to that level of success, works their *expletive* ass off.
Muhummad Ali
I hated every second of training, but I kept thinking, 'Put in the work now, and live the rest of your life a champion.'
The Elements of Style - Boxes and Arrows
The seduction of fashion, the desire to impress or stretch your skills are all pitfalls unless you temper them with your natural skills and temperament. That said, talent is not enough.
It's painful when a client or a boss rejects your first design. Sometimes that initial effort seems perfect. But revision is a way to reach a better design. Or sometimes and only sometimes shed light on the perfection of the first. When this odd event occurs, it's best not to be upset because no one recognized your initial brilliance. Instead, remember that design is as much process as result, and part of your job is to get everyone participating in the design to the end goal.
Here White speaks to fashion. Just because Jeffrey Zeldman did it doesn't mean you should. Or Jason Freid. Or IDEO. When you see a hyper-simple site, or one with scrolling photos, or one with 64 point type, ask yourself if you can and if you should pull it off.
A lesson I have learned by working with web search is: if you want people to notice something useful, the worst thing you could do is adorn it with lines, colors, or animation. A light touch actually indicates to users that this is worth paying attention to; blue and underlined is often the most effective. The most usable is often also the most used.
In art school, I was asked to copy master works. I didn't understand why, until I began copying them; when you imitate you do actually learn. You don't just copy, you understand why the brushstrokes went left then right, you know why bright green was used in a face. And when writing, I always wrote with the voice of whomever I was reading. Hemmingway made me economical, Salinger verbose.
The Art of Thinking Through Making - Jessica Helfand
Drawing is the point of contact in which idea begins to approximate form. There is a kind of transcendent energy in the sketchbook, or the tissue, or even the napkin upon which the simplest of doodles begins its long, twisted road to realization. It's all grist for the mill, and the studio is its incubation chamber: not the studio with the white board and the IT guy and the phones ringing and the incessant emails, but the studio in which the ideas seek, and ultimately start to find, their burgeoning, fledgling form. Cezanne once wrote that the painter must enclose himself within his work, and it is true that such investment & physical, spiritual, and deeply intentional is, in fact, what making work is all about.
Drawing, as the primary gesture of making, reopens the doors of the imagination and recasts the process as something completely different. Scary, because you don't always know where you're going. But somehow, you know when you get there.
There's time, later for logic, for editing, for justifying all that type, for putting up those responsible roadblocks that we all must, on some level, choose to embrace. The studio, at least a little piece of it, is not the place for such duty-bound thinking. Somewhere, somehow, it must be the place for thinking through making.
Advice for hotrodders (quotes taken from www.rgruppe.org)
01. Stay clear of trends, that is unless you are the one starting them.
02. Never let popular opinion or trends dictate what colour you paint your car.
03. Help younger rodders in any way you can.
04. Learn how to draw flames.
05. Never rush a project, it will always show.
06. If you are going to do a burnout, do it where nobody will see you.
07. Don't be ashamed if you didn't build your car. There are very few people out there who can do it all.
08. At the same time never take more than a decade to build a car. Trends seem to cycle every five to seven years.
09. Build your car for YOU, not for the fame and glory. Fame and glory fade with time but YOU will be around as long as you live.
10. If you get your car in a magazine, buy only one or two extra copies, not fifty. If you buy all the copies up, no one will ever know you were in a magazine.
11. Remember, your painted car is no better than a primered one. Maybe the owner of that primered car likes it that way.
12. Remember, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.
13. Listen to constructive criticism. But remember, there are people out there who enjoy to see you get angry. If you learn to tell the difference between the two, you are wise.
14. Take someone over age 65 for a ride in you rod. They can remember when these cars were used as everyday transportation and it will most likely trigger a fond memory that they will share with you.
15. Likewise, take a child or teen for a ride. Young opinions are forming, and who knows, they may become the next generation's rodders.
16. Work on forming your own opinion, and don't be afraid to voice it.
17. Be modest.
18. Never try to outrun a cop.
19. Always wear sunscreen in a roadster.
Taken from 'Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking', David Bayles and Ted Orland.
A ceramics teacher, at the beginning of the semester, split the class in two. One half was told they would be graded on the quantity of work: the more a student produced, the higher the grade. The second group would be graded on quality: to get an A, a student only needed to produce one pot, but it had to be perfect.
It turned out that at the end of the semester, the works of highest quality were all produced by the students in the 'quantity' group. That group was constantly learning and improving, while the other group 'sat theorizing about perfection' and did not progress in their actual work.
How To Be Creative
So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:
01. Ignore everybody.
02. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
03. Put the hours in.
04. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
05. You are responsible for your own experience.
06. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
07. Keep your day job.
08. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
09. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
14. Dying young is overrated.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
19. Sing in your own voice.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
How To Feel Miserable As An Artist (or what not to do, underline any that currently apply)
01. Constantly compare yourself to other artists.
02. Talk to your family about what you do and expect them to cheer you on.
03. Base the success of your entire career on one project.
04. Stick with what you know.
05. Undervalue your expertise.
06. Let money dictate what you do.
07. Bow to societal pressures.
08. Only do work that your family/friends would love.
09. Do whatever the client/customer/gallery owner/patron/investor asks.
10. Set unachievable/overwhelming goals. To be accomplished by tomorrow.
You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again, you can look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.
Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
Alain De Botton - Status Anxiety
Rousseau’s argument hung on a radical thesis. Being truly wealthy, he suggested, does not require having many things; rather, it requires having what one longs for. Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
There are two ways to make a man richer, reasoned Rousseau: give him more money or curb his desires. Modern societies have done the former spectacularly well, but by continuously whetting appetites, they have at the same time managed to negate a share of their success. For the individual, trying to make more money may not be the most effective way to feel wealthy. We might do better, instead, to distance ourselves, both practically and emotionally, from those whom we consider to be our equals and yet who have grown richer than us. Rather than struggling to become bigger fish, we might concentrate our energies on finding smaller ponds or smaller species to swim with, so our own size will trouble us less. Insofar as advanced societies supply their members with historically elevated incomes, they appear to make us wealthier. But in truth, their net effect may be to impoverish us, because by fostering unlimited expectations, they keep open permanent gaps between what we want and what we can afford, between who we might be and who we really are.
Such disparities may leave us feeling more deprived even than primitive savages, who, insisted Rousseau (his argument here reaching the limits of plausibility), felt themselves to be lacking for nothing in the world so long as they had a roof over their heads, a few apples and nuts to eat and the leisure to spend their evenings playing on “some crude musical instrument” or “using sharp-edged stones to make a fishing canoe.”
Tim Ferriss
Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually’, just do it and correct the course along the way.
David Foster Wallace
But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
What do you choose?
The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care.
- Hugh Mcleod
10 Work Principles By Frank Chimero
10 Principles That Might Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse
1. Be honest.
Be honest to your audience. An open path of communication is built upon trust. This idea is relevant to every other form of communication, and I think it applies to visual communication. Honesty isn’t just about audience. Be honest to yourself as well. Do the things you’re passionate about. Avoid the things that you hate, if you can.
2. Consistent voice is more important than consistent style.
Voice is about what you say. It’s content. Style is about what you’re wearing. It’s aesthetics. The prior informs the latter, not the other way around. Clothes don’t make the man. They don’t make your work either.
3. Does it have heart?
If it does, make it. If it doesn’t, why spend the time on something that doesn’t have spirit?
4. Have modest expectations.
Spend a lot of time choosing that one thing that a piece of design or an illustration should try to do. Then, work your ass off trying to figure out the absolute best way to do that one thing.
5. Don’t be scared of your tools.
Use them, don’t fear them. For instance, while sketching, I recommend using cheap paper. If the paper’s cheap, you won’t feel bad documenting your bad ideas. Getting the first, awful ideas out of the way is crucial: very rarely does any one hit it out of the park on the first try. If I had a sketchbook filled with nice, expensive paper, I’d feel obligated to make the first idea I sketched brilliant. That pressure would paralyze me. Tools should be enablers, not disablers. If something is more intrusive or intimidating than it is useful, get rid of it. It’s not a tool, it’s a toy. Or worse, a creative boogie man that you’re inviting through your front door.
6. Embrace the subconscious.
In the studio, I have a sofa for naps with a couple pillows. The pillow is kind of comfortable, but mostly not. Just soft enough to relax you. But, just stiff enough to keep you from falling fully asleep. Right before you fall fully asleep, your brain is making all sorts of connections between all of the unrelated thoughts in your brain. There’s no filter from your conscious mind saying “This makes sense. This other idea doesn’t.” Without that filter, you can consider more possibilities. So, grab something to write with, fill your head to the brim with research and what you already know. Then, take an almost-nap and get ready to document the ideas that find you.
7. Edit.
Delete unimportant things. Even if you love them. If it isn’t spectacular, it gets cut. Kill your darlings. Be a cold-blooded killer. Ruthless. Delete. Refine. Improve.
8. Being too comfortable is dangerous.
Most creatures die in their sleep. Keep moving, or get eaten. The only things you should be absolutely comfortable with in your creative process are your tools.
9. There is nothing keeping you from doing the sort of work that you wish.
What do you want? It’s a hard, yet crucial question. We all do creative work to get happy. It’s why we let it beat us up, and it’s why we keep crawling back to it. Figure out precisely what you want, and realize that if no one will pay you to make it, you can still make it for yourself. And you still win, because you’re happy.
10. Execute.
An idea on the page is worth 100x more than an idea in the mind. You can only judge and be judged by work that’s executed. Eventually, we all realize that most of the ideas that look great in our mind look dumb once they’re real. But, at least you now know.
Fuller Designing
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think of how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
- Buckminster Fuller
Principles Behind Japanese Design
FUKINSEI (imbalanced)
Asymmetry, odd numbers, irregularity, unevenness, imbalance is used as a denial of perfection as perfection and symmetry does not occur in nature.
KANSO (simple)
Elimination of ornate and things of simplicity by nature expresses their truthfulness. Neat, frank and uncomplicated.
KOKOU (austere)
Basic, weathered bare essentials that are aged and un-sensuous. Evokes sternness, forbiddance, maturity and weight.
SHIZEN (natural)
Raw, natural and unforced creativity without pretense. True naturalness is to negate the naive and accidental.
YUGEN (subtle profound)
Suggest and not reveal layers of meaning hidden within. Invisible to the casual eye and avoiding the obvious.
DATSUZOKU (unworldly)
Transcendence of conventional and traditional. Free from the bondage of laws and restrictions. True creativity.
SEIJAKU (calm)
Silence and tranquility, blissful solitude. Absence of disturbance and noise from one’s mind, body and surroundings.
Done Manifesto
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they have given up. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody is telling you anymore, thats' a bad place to be. Your critics are the one telling you they still love you and care.
- Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.
- Are you tigger or are you eeyore?
- Never lose child-like wonder
- Help others
- Don't bail, the best of the gold is at the bottom of the barrel
- Don't complain, just work harder
- Show gratitude
- Learn through head-fakes, by learning without knowing you're learning.
Advertising
Advertising is the price companies pay for being un-original.
Where Do I Stand?
As a company, you have to be the most of something - the most exclusive, the most affordable, the most responsive, the most friendly. Companies used to want to be in the middle of the road - that’s where all the customers were. But now, in an age of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the middle of the road is the road to ruin. What do they say in Texas? ‘The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos.
Simplicity
Simplicity is about living life with more enjoyment and less pain. - John Maeda
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere. - Bruce Mau
We're rarely more beautiful than when we're our most ugly. That's when we know what we're really made of. - Chris Abani
Change your behaviour and it will change your mind. If you want to become more compassionate, volunteer at a hospital and your mind will become more compassionate. - AJ Jacobs
Make Ideas Happen
You're ready already. Nobody knows what they hell they are doing. There is no instruction manual for exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. It hasn't been written yet. And only you can write it. Now's the time to do it. Stop waiting to live your dream.
Listen to your gut and make up your own mind. Do your research, lots of it, but just because you can't find any believers or proven success stories doesn't mean you're not the one to make it successful.
Be less afraid of failure. There's no doubt that fear is a good motivator, but failing is inevitable. And thank God. It's how you learn and grow. If one thing doesn't work, try something else. You can always say you tried which is more than most people.
Don't put all your happiness into one basket. It's a lot easier to deal with the constant breakdowns and breakthroughs if you have more than one source of happiness.
Using Constraints
I've had several business ideas in the past, none of which ever made it out of thoughtspace. In starting 30 sleeps, I took a lesson from how you guys used constraints to drive the development of Basecamp. My primary constraint was a deadline: June 1, 2007. I made a commitment to myself that, no matter what, 30zzz was going live on that date. This gave me only a few weeks to get something running.
Tightening the noose forced me to start building something right away, even though I had only a vague idea of what I wanted the site to be. My first coding session involved literally opening up TextMate and just plowing. The UI went from nothing, to horribly bad, to ugly, to tolerable, to usable, to running in production. Had I waited until I was "ready" to start this project, I'd still be twiddling my thumbs.
10 Things I Believe So Far
1. Form and function
The two can live in harmony, the trick is to realise that pure function can be in beautiful form - like a txt msg.
2. Interactions speak louder than words
You can talk all you want about something. But, just like show and tell, it's only when you pass it around for others to see that it becomes more than a production.
3. Be afraid
"Fear is the beginning of all wisdom". Always be afraid that you don't know what you're doing - have the confidence that you do. And pursue a healthy balance.
4. You can't polish a sneaker
Don't try to sell a hollow idea as something more. Start with something solid, something that'll look good polished.
5. Beautiful simplicity
Designing and writing simple is difficult. Understanding this challenge is what makes concise so beautiful.
6. If everything is important, nothing is
A clear heirarchy and focus of information is a core principle in design. This is true in all areas of communication.
7. Return on involvement
Some believe meetings are a waste of time - a lot of times they are. Although, including the people who will be involved is well worth the investment.
8. The best idea is boss
Ideas should be judged soley on their own merit. An amazing idea can come from anyone. Empower this by letting go of the title - it's the best way to make the "boss" happy.
9. Design in 3s
This simple approach works well in aesthetics and communication. It hardly ever fails.
10. Stay fresh
Read and learn. Experiment and explore. Never quit persuing your passion and trade.
Good Design Is
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Back to purity, back to simplicity.
Getting Things Done
Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.
Creative Ideas
He does, in fact, prioritize. "I try not to have all these ideas that don't amount to anything," he says. That's what differentiates a successful innovator from someone with a lot of unrealized what-ifs: the ability to produce a single, well-defined opportunity from a lot of cool, snazzy ideas. To do so requires discipline, pragmatism and goal-setting. As successful as he's been, Bertone knows that a good innovator always stays on his toes. Brand innovation, he says, works "like a relationship. How do you not become boring to your partner?" For all of Bertone's casual confidence, his answer to the question is surprising. "You have to always have that insecurity," he says. "You can't get too confident with your ideas."
Problem Solving
Why are we doing this?
What problem are we solving?
Is this actually useful?
Are we adding value?
Will this change behaviour?
Is there an easier way?
What's the opportunity cost?
Is it really worth it?
Persist
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
- John Calvin Coolidge
Life Is...
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air.
You name them: work, family, health, friends, and spirit, and you´re keeping all of them in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass.
If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same.
You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
How?
- Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
- Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
- Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
- Don't let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.
- Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
- Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us together.
- Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn to be brave.
- Don't shut love out of your life by saying it´s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
- Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.
- Don't forget that a person´s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
- Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
- Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
- Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, and Today is a gift; that's why we call it - the Present...
Art boundaries
I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
- Federico Fellini
Stifled Creativity
Creativity tends to be flattened when we are harried, when we need to boil it down fast, get it done, get it good enough, and then move on to the next crisis, to the next item on the agenda, to the next project that must be completed in typical under-budgeted, under- resourced, under-timelined fashion.
This puts powerful pressures on us to deliver without going out on a limb, without tapping the true wellsprings of our creativity, doing just enough to get by. In fairness, speed ultimately disconnects us from the passions that fuel our creativity. One might call it “succeeding by not screwing up too badly.”
Finally, and increasingly frequently, it results in that unenviable state known as perpetual burnout and Survival of the Fastest turns into the need for Revival of the Fastest.
Achieving A+
In considering how to achieve an A+, we must revisit the idea that technology siphons creativity out of the innovation process by depriving us of sleep and demanding ever more speed, which ultimately leads to heightened stress, anxiety, and eventually burnout.
Stefan Sagmeisters Things I Like About My Job
- Thinking about ideas and content freely - with the deadline far away (no anxiety)
- Working without interruption on a single project (immersion)
- Using a wide variety of tools and techniques (don't get bored)
- Travelling to new places (get out of the studio)
- Working on projects that matter to me (important projects to me)
- Having things come back from the printer done well (enjoy end results)
Stefan Sagmeisters Things I Have Learnt
- Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
- Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
- Being not truthful works against me.
- Helping other people helps me.
- Organising a charity group is suprisingly easy.
- Everything I do always comes back to me.
- Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
- Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
- Money does not make me happy.
- Travelling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
- Assuming is stifling.
- Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
- Trying to look good limits my life.
- Worrying solves nothing.
- Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
- Having guts always works out for me.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/04/luddite_0426
So we're doomed. We will continue inventing exquisite new ways of killing each other, and justifying the need to do so, until we succeed in destroying everything. Which, in the name of somebody's god or somebody's country or somebody's way of life, we will. You have a nice day, now.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-become-a-creative-genius.html
"Schools have crushed creativity. We were told to color within the lines. We were taught to follow instructions. The goal ins chool is to get the 'right' answer. Unfortunately, if you're afraid to be wrong, you'll never be creative or original."
http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html
When you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.
Style is not to be trusted.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvelous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty.
On Aging
Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’
http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es5_pop.html
Perhaps the most obvious loss is what we call our sense of reality. Television combines news about the war, Paris Hilton’s career, global warming and Geico commercials into events of equal importance. The result is an enormous population that believes nothing matters.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000121.html
5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns. In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be where you are.” It works.
6. Don’t forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after forgetting his goal. Students and young designers often approach a problem with insight and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip away in confusion, fear and wasted effort. They forget their goals, and make up new ones as they go along. Original thought is a kind of gift from the gods. Artists know this. “Hold the moment,” they say. “Honor it.” Get your idea down on a slip of paper and tape it up in front of you.
8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.
9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it, distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.
http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/resources/type_advice.htm
Think more, design less.
Many desperate acts of design (drop shadows, gradients and the gratuitous use of transparency) are committed in the void left by a strong concept.
The cornerstone of this place is a work ethic. A hungry, passionate, intense work ethic. You look at Steven Spielberg, hardest working man in
Wieden + Kennedy
Hollywood. Kobe Bryant, hardest working man in the NBA. Anyone who has gotten to that level of success, works their *expletive* ass off.
Muhummad Ali
I hated every second of training, but I kept thinking, 'Put in the work now, and live the rest of your life a champion.'
The Elements of Style - Boxes and Arrows
The seduction of fashion, the desire to impress or stretch your skills are all pitfalls unless you temper them with your natural skills and temperament. That said, talent is not enough.
It's painful when a client or a boss rejects your first design. Sometimes that initial effort seems perfect. But revision is a way to reach a better design. Or sometimes and only sometimes shed light on the perfection of the first. When this odd event occurs, it's best not to be upset because no one recognized your initial brilliance. Instead, remember that design is as much process as result, and part of your job is to get everyone participating in the design to the end goal.
Here White speaks to fashion. Just because Jeffrey Zeldman did it doesn't mean you should. Or Jason Freid. Or IDEO. When you see a hyper-simple site, or one with scrolling photos, or one with 64 point type, ask yourself if you can and if you should pull it off.
A lesson I have learned by working with web search is: if you want people to notice something useful, the worst thing you could do is adorn it with lines, colors, or animation. A light touch actually indicates to users that this is worth paying attention to; blue and underlined is often the most effective. The most usable is often also the most used.
In art school, I was asked to copy master works. I didn't understand why, until I began copying them; when you imitate you do actually learn. You don't just copy, you understand why the brushstrokes went left then right, you know why bright green was used in a face. And when writing, I always wrote with the voice of whomever I was reading. Hemmingway made me economical, Salinger verbose.
The Art of Thinking Through Making - Jessica Helfand
Drawing is the point of contact in which idea begins to approximate form. There is a kind of transcendent energy in the sketchbook, or the tissue, or even the napkin upon which the simplest of doodles begins its long, twisted road to realization. It's all grist for the mill, and the studio is its incubation chamber: not the studio with the white board and the IT guy and the phones ringing and the incessant emails, but the studio in which the ideas seek, and ultimately start to find, their burgeoning, fledgling form. Cezanne once wrote that the painter must enclose himself within his work, and it is true that such investment & physical, spiritual, and deeply intentional is, in fact, what making work is all about.
Drawing, as the primary gesture of making, reopens the doors of the imagination and recasts the process as something completely different. Scary, because you don't always know where you're going. But somehow, you know when you get there.
There's time, later for logic, for editing, for justifying all that type, for putting up those responsible roadblocks that we all must, on some level, choose to embrace. The studio, at least a little piece of it, is not the place for such duty-bound thinking. Somewhere, somehow, it must be the place for thinking through making.
Advice for hotrodders (quotes taken from www.rgruppe.org)
01. Stay clear of trends, that is unless you are the one starting them.
02. Never let popular opinion or trends dictate what colour you paint your car.
03. Help younger rodders in any way you can.
04. Learn how to draw flames.
05. Never rush a project, it will always show.
06. If you are going to do a burnout, do it where nobody will see you.
07. Don't be ashamed if you didn't build your car. There are very few people out there who can do it all.
08. At the same time never take more than a decade to build a car. Trends seem to cycle every five to seven years.
09. Build your car for YOU, not for the fame and glory. Fame and glory fade with time but YOU will be around as long as you live.
10. If you get your car in a magazine, buy only one or two extra copies, not fifty. If you buy all the copies up, no one will ever know you were in a magazine.
11. Remember, your painted car is no better than a primered one. Maybe the owner of that primered car likes it that way.
12. Remember, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.
13. Listen to constructive criticism. But remember, there are people out there who enjoy to see you get angry. If you learn to tell the difference between the two, you are wise.
14. Take someone over age 65 for a ride in you rod. They can remember when these cars were used as everyday transportation and it will most likely trigger a fond memory that they will share with you.
15. Likewise, take a child or teen for a ride. Young opinions are forming, and who knows, they may become the next generation's rodders.
16. Work on forming your own opinion, and don't be afraid to voice it.
17. Be modest.
18. Never try to outrun a cop.
19. Always wear sunscreen in a roadster.
Taken from 'Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking', David Bayles and Ted Orland.
A ceramics teacher, at the beginning of the semester, split the class in two. One half was told they would be graded on the quantity of work: the more a student produced, the higher the grade. The second group would be graded on quality: to get an A, a student only needed to produce one pot, but it had to be perfect.
It turned out that at the end of the semester, the works of highest quality were all produced by the students in the 'quantity' group. That group was constantly learning and improving, while the other group 'sat theorizing about perfection' and did not progress in their actual work.
How To Be Creative
So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:
01. Ignore everybody.
02. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
03. Put the hours in.
04. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
05. You are responsible for your own experience.
06. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
07. Keep your day job.
08. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
09. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
14. Dying young is overrated.
15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
16. The world is changing.
17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
19. Sing in your own voice.
20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
25. You have to find your own schtick.
26. Write from the heart.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
How To Feel Miserable As An Artist (or what not to do, underline any that currently apply)
01. Constantly compare yourself to other artists.
02. Talk to your family about what you do and expect them to cheer you on.
03. Base the success of your entire career on one project.
04. Stick with what you know.
05. Undervalue your expertise.
06. Let money dictate what you do.
07. Bow to societal pressures.
08. Only do work that your family/friends would love.
09. Do whatever the client/customer/gallery owner/patron/investor asks.
10. Set unachievable/overwhelming goals. To be accomplished by tomorrow.